Half life : sidestory V2
by stewi102
Summary: this story follows a trio of rebels as they make their way to city 17, this story is set approximately 3 years before half life 2. more chapters to come. this is basically a redux of the original improving upon some mistakes i didnt see in the original version from like 3 years ago this is the start of what i hope will be a long spanning continuity, but not telling ...spoil
1. Chapter 1

Hλlf-life 2: side story.

Chapter 1

At the brink of night the sounds of a train screeching to a halt echoes through the plains as three hardened rebels crawled silently through the long dry grass towards the combine train, they could overhear the combine's radio chatter as they clambered out of the train.

"Vector 1, this is HQ we got reports some rouges out there, report any sightings, eliminate or detain if possible, over"

"Roger that HQ, we will keep an eye out and respond with any developments, vector 1 out".

As they crept closer their goal became, complicated "looks like we got some soldiers guarding the dam thing" Keith said softly to the others, Jake turned his head right to Keith and smiled, "and when has that ever stopped us before huh", and with that Keith turned to his left towards Mason, "you hang back here and cover us, we'll sneak up on them and see whether or not we can hitch a ride", Mason gave a simple nod in response. "Alright" Keith said patiently as they watched them walking along the side of the train, "wait for it, wait...NOW!", as Keith and Jake ran towards the train mason opened fire on the unsuspecting combine, Jake raised his shotgun towards a soldier and pulled the trigger killing a soldier in a blast of hot lead as they neared the train car, it was then that the combine realised there was more than one of them.

As the soldiers mobilised Keith stepped out from between the train's engine and the first car as Jake dived for cover beside him, as Jake scrambled to get up from the ground Keith fired at the soldiers as they tried to organised themselves, as one soldier fell another took his place and fired back on Keith's position . Mason was lying in the long grass at the side of the action aiming his pulse rifle at a soldier as they began to move forwards towards the others, mason smiled and fired a single shot with godlike precision and snickered "headshot", Keith quickly stepped back behind the train car as pulse rifle rounds shot past him narrowly missing his head. The remaining soldiers started moving forwards closing in on the pined rebels to spit masons sniping, Keith slammed another magazine into his SMG preparing for the coming troops, the radios suddenly blared "GO, GO, GO!" And the next cars doors burst open and even more combine troop's leapt from the train car to eliminate the rouge entities.

"Looks like there's something good on this train huh", Jake said optimistically to Keith as he reloaded his shotgun, "Let's just focus on getting onto the dam thing" Keith replied as more gunshots ricocheted off the side of the train car. "I have an idea!" Jake said suddenly, he then reached into his tattered back pocket and pulled out an old 'flash bang' grenade, "were the hell did you find that?" Keith responded as he continued to fire upon the approaching combine troops, "tell you later" Jake replied as he pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it around the corner of the train car.

As the grenade landed at the feet of the soldiers shooting at them Jake and Keith averted their eyes from the burst of light and noise, the soldiers were instantly blinded and were stumbling disoriented as the rebels both stepped out from around the corner of the train car they gunned down the blinded combine with a merciless vengeance.

As the last glimmers of sunlight flickered across the horizon Keith stepped into the troops transport car on the train with his gun raised in anticipation of a survivor to be hiding in amongst the seats and weapon racks against the walls, but there was none to be seen, Keith sighed with relief, they must of got them all h thought to himself. While Keith continued to check more of the cars Jake were raiding the combine soldier's bodies for ammo and other bits he could use.

Mason ran down from his sniping position waving the others as he got closer he said to Jake "ha ha! Another successful hitchhiking", Jake had just finished shoving some of the loot he found into his backpack and walked over to greet his sharp eyed friend, "yeah and I found some supplies, this is turning into our lucky day huh Keith" Jake turned to face the open train doors expecting to see his friend standing there, but he wasn't.

"Hey Keith you there?" Jake said intently, then he saw Keith step out to look at them "yeah I'm here, listen we should probably get on this dam thing before it starts up again...and there's that whole you know...giant bug thing". Jake and mason looked at each other, after exchanging a look of agreement they both stepped into the train car and closed the door as it began to spring into life again.

Jake walked towards the local control console at the very end of the trains car at the head of the seat row, "I'll try and hack that thing and see where this trains heading, and if there's anything special the combine are hiding" he then sat down at the console and began typing , mason laid down across several of the seats in the car and placed his gun on the floor then closed his eyes, "if you two don't mind ill try and get some sleep before we have to get off" he said lazily, Jake responded with a simple "sure, go ahead, should be safe enough."

Keith was sorting out his gear, pistol, machine gun, good thing for jakes minor case of kleptomania, they would of been long starved or weapon less if not for his little obsession, he looked at Jake slouched over the console carefully typing away. Keith turned away and saw an overwatch standard issue AR2 pulse rifle mounted in one of the weapon racks and smiled, "finally" he said eagerly, he placed his SMG next into his backpack, _would be best to hold onto...just in case_, he walked over to the rack pulled the heavy rifle from the rack and began to examine it intently, he had never had the chance to hold an AR2 before.

The sun had set and the train was moving at full speed across the horizon of blackness, Keith sat down on the opposite side to where mason was sleeping and began to feel his mind becoming blurry with fatigue, he paced his newly acquired gun on the seat next to him and laid down across the seats and slowly drifted to sleep, where he could dream of a time before the war, the 7 hours war.


	2. Chapter 2

Hλlf-life: side story

Chapter 2

Keith's eyes opened to the site and sound of his home city bristling with activity, cars and people alike, going back and forth in their daily routine down upon the streets below him, a site he had not seen in a very long time. He was standing on the roof of a small skyscraper, relatively speaking, it was one of the larger buildings in the skyline but by no means an exceedingly tall one, but as he looked around him he realised that this was a very different day from those of old.

It was the smells in the air and the sounds all around him; they seemed, even here all too familiar... on this day.

As he lent over the edge of the roof to look below again he saw the once calm populace running and screaming in panic, and it was at this moment Keith realised the day it was, the one defining moment in humanities history, he turned slowly and saw the great orange fracture in the sky that brought forth the combine. A pair of gunships flew across the buildings to Keith's left, guns roaring with fire and noise causing buildings to collapse and people to fall in a chaos of blood and fear as they followed the streets gunning down anything that moved.

One split off from another larger formation around the main combine cruiser and started shooting the roof of the building Keith was on, just before he was hit by the roaring guns fire, he felt himself awaken.

"Keith, Keith! Wake up!" Jake shouted at his sleeping friend, shaking him slightly, "Huh... what is it?" Keith responded drowsily as he raised himself to a seated position, Jake sat down at the control console and brought up a map of what was most likely to be the area they were in, "I've been digging around and it turns out the troops we killed were a small reinforcement group for the local garrison in a place called 'city 17'it seems to be a large urban centre".

Keith looked over jakes shoulder intriguingly, "anything on were the train came from?" Jake scrolled the map over a bit, "yeah this train came from an old high security prison called nova prospect, and there's something else, an encrypted file, I can't open it and I've tried everything". Keith rested his chin on his hand and thought for a while, "Maybe it's an order file?" Jake looked over his shoulder, "could be, hard to tell, looks like we're going to need some help on this one", Keith looked at the map, "there may be a active resistance group in the city" Jake turned in his seat to face him. The bright moonlight shining through the large slits in the ceiling above illuminating the facial hair around Keith's chin and jaw line, some shadows cast across his face from some clustered strands of hair peering from beneath his old tattered beanie ,"maybe, we'll see when we get there, but for now I've all ready started downloading the File to a C.D.S.D (combine data storage device), it should be done in a few hours", Keith stood up and began a routine check of his gear, " right, tell me when the files done, ok" Jake turned back towards the console "sure" .

Keith reached over his back and un-slung the bags he had on; he opened the largest one and rummaged around for some food he had in there, his hands latched onto something round and cylindrical, he pulled the object out to see it was his old favourite, baked beans. He pulled the can out from his bag and dropped the bag down on the seats behind him; he looked at the old slightly rusted can and saw a reflection of himself, he saw looking back at him a man who had seen a long time of struggle and despair, just like mason and Jake. Keith's eyes were drawn to a large straight scare down the right hand side of his face, thanks to of one of those giant sand bugs, he ran his fingers down it and remembered the pain it had once caused, now all but a bitter memory of the past.

Keith took a deep breath and tried to leave the past behind, it wasn't getting any easier, he sat down and pulled a knife out from a sheath on his belt and started to cut into the cans thin steel surface, taking his time in cutting it, at this point there was no need to rush.

Mason turned and opened his eyes to Keith eating, "OI! Mind sharing some of that over here", mason said jokingly as he raised himself to a seated position, he reached out his arm for the can, Keith handed the can over without a single sign of argument, mason grasped the can of beans and pulled out an old steel fork from his bag beside him and started eating.

As Keith sat there looking upon his old friend, he could see the same signs of wear and tear upon masons cloths and civil protection vest, the same kind that they all had, mason looked up to the ceiling to gaze at the stars, "sun will rise soon" he looked down to face Keith, "anyways where are we heading?" mason asked inquisitively, Jake turned in his chair towards the two, "well, where going to another large urban centre, probably swelling with combine, at least it's better than were the train came from, and don't ask about that ok, and we got some encrypted Files I'm currently downloading which were going to need some help decrypting."

Mason looked at Jake with a similar smile of sarcastic humour they were all feeling, he looked back at Keith and placed the can of beans on the seat to his left , " so...another city run huh" he said with a slight hint of exhaustion in his voice. He looked back at Keith, who just gave a slight nod in reply. Jake turned back to the console, waiting for the file to finish loading, "98 percent... and it's been about 6 hours so far, so it should be done soon...ish." Jake announced just to let his friends know its status, Keith looked up to the sky seeing the light shining through the ceiling rafters and smiled "the suns up, finally" he said with a hint of relief in his voice. Mason looked to the sky like Keith was and took a deep breath, "smells like were close to the coast." He said with a slight smile on his weary face.

Time passed, the train kept moving, the three rebels chatted and prepped for the city and the loading bar slowly increased. Jake was sitting with his head back looking up at the sky watching the clouds pass over the train, he turned and glanced at the console just for a second and saw that the process was finally at 100%, "hey guys the files are done loading!" he said with a feeling of relief in his voice as he pulled the C.D.S.D from the consoles external drive port. Keith looked over at Jake with a mixed expression of relief and anxiety, "you think there is any chance they'll try and track this train?" he said with a sense of concern in his voice, mason looked at Jake with the same expression, "yeah, I mean thieve done it before", Jake looked at the other two and then looked at the peace of steel in his hand, " don't worry, I've done a ghost load, they won't be able to tell the things been coped" he said with a confident tone of voice.

Jake went to sit down next to where he had placed his pack, suddenly a flash of red light flared throughout the train car, everyone looked around in confusion, Jake walked quickly over to the console and franticly tapped on the keyboard, "oh SHIT!, they've found us!" he yield.

Keith and mason both quickly stood and scowled at Jake, "I thought you ghosted them, how the hell did they trace you!" mason said angered at his friends apparent incompetence, Jake was looking down at the flashing console, franticly typing, sifting through combine code.

"they must be tracking the train when we hit it" jake took a deep breath in and struck his face with the flat of his palm, "damit!" he hissed out loud, "Balls..." Keith moaned under his voice, quickly followed by a bellowing "CRAP!" from mason as they berated themselves over their lapse in forethought.

Suddenly the sound of helicopter blades slicing through the air erupted from above; they looked up and saw the underside of a hunter chopper fly above them towards the front of the train, the sound of machine gun fire was immediately followed by the sounds of bullets penetrating the steel of teh trains engine.

Keith looked at mason and Jake "the bastards trying to take the train down!" he yield, his voice was rendered hardly recognisable by the sounds of alarms and the choppers machine gun fairing above them as it continued to hurl charged rounds at the trains armoured engine in an attempt to destroy it. The three rebels grabbed their gear and tried to franticly formulate a plan, Jake looked puzzled at their urn predicament, "how could I of slipped up, I mean I'm not the best but...but... why would they want to destroy one of their own trains?"Jake yelled while sliding his shotgun out of his backpack. Keith stepped over to Jake and quickly grabbed him by the arm, "they want this train destroyed because **were** on it, and it must have something to do with the info you stole, must be really sacred if they want it destroyed instead of recovered".

Mason tilted his head back and let out a loud Lough, "wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be breens mail or something"

Then suddenly they fell forward and hit the floor hard, there was a boom from the engine as the train jolted back and slowly began to resumed its default speed, Keith picked himself back up and groaned in frustration. The chopper was beginning to circle the head of the train, slowly positioning itself at a right angle to the broadside of its target, the pilot gripped the trigger tightly, spraying another volley of rounds into the engine.

Mason and Jake stood up and tried to regain their footing, the gunfire suddenly stopped, and the chopper had moved ahead of the train, the still silence was soon followed by the distinctive sound of a missile firing, Keith's eyes widened, he quickly got himself up and turned to the others, they both had the same expression on their faces, he heard the missile getting closer towards them.

"BRACE YOURSELF!" he yelled but the sound was suddenly drowned out by the sound of a immense explosion, the train car impacted the wreckage of the engine and began to roll, the rebels were thrown all around the car as flames began to creep into the car and the steel bent like grass in the wind. The train stopped its roll and slid along the ground, Keith hit the inverted roof of the train hard, he couldn't feel his body anymore, it was replaced by a blurred throbbing pain, he could see the other lying limp around him but couldn't muster the strength to even try and speak.

The sun shone through a mix of dust and sand through a tear in the side of the train, Keith vision began to blur as the shape of the chopper flying away began to evaporate into the distance...


End file.
